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The CEO as Salesperson
February 25, 2008
Know when the situation calls for bringing out the big guns
By Rick Simpson and J.Mark Carr
There is no doubt that involving the CEO or other senior management in sales can break an impasse or raise the level of the sales conversation. But just because the CEO leads the organization doesn't necessarily make him or her an effective salesperson. In fact, involving the top dog in the sales process with key prospects can sometimes be a recipe for disaster.
By way of example, in one recent engagement, a regional sales manager decided to bring the CEO to a meeting with an important prospect. The regional sales manager was a true professional and had confirmed the purpose and agenda of the meeting with her CEO as well as with the prospect, who had been considering this client's solution for many months.
After initial introductions, the CEO took over the meeting and, ignoring the agenda, began a detailed demo and discussion of the product. He set about to demonstrate the superiority of the product and his own knowledge of the industry. He argued with the prospect, dismissed their questions and points of view, and then couldn't understand why they didn't buy immediately. It took the regional manager nine months to recover and get the sale.
Luckily, not all tales of CEO sales involvement are so grim. There are numerous case studies in which a CEO's presence and input helped break down prospect objections and logjams, leading to substantial revenue and (in some cases) even to ongoing strategic relationships.
So how can a salesperson use the CEO's energy, knowledge and drive without risking disaster? The key is to understand the characteristics that are relevant to the effectiveness of the CEO as salesperson before extending the invitation.
The advantages of using the CEO often include
• Great passion, energy, and knowledge about the product, service and business approach.
• Strategic knowledge about the industry.
• Built-in authority to take immediate action, because CEOs can react to the sales situation and change product/price/support policy to move it to the next stage of the sales process, or even close the deal.
• Prospects respecting the office and person of CEO ("This must be an important meeting!"), which can lift the discussion out of the weeds and provide new access to important prospect decision-makers and influencers.
• Giving an ego boost to prospects in middle management. ("Hey, I'm meeting with the CEO!")
On the other hand, sales managers need to ask themselves the following questions about their CEO's ability to positively impact a sales situation:
• Can he or she really listen? Do they have sales skills? Have they ever been in sales, or had sales training to understand the importance of listening?
• Do they know that selling is a professional pursuit? Do they trust their own sales management and salespeople?
• Do they believe, "If we build it, they will come" (especially for entrepreneurs)?
• Do they get defensive when objections arise, or do they handle them like pros?
• Do they have discipline around their own personal sales processes?
• Do they give their staff the freedom to be creative?
If the answer to one or more of those questions is no, it spells potential trouble.
The key to effective use of the CEO lies in the discipline of call planning. This can be time-consuming and the CEO might need to be educated about it, but the payoff is huge. A checklist for a good call plan looks something like this:
• Objective. A primary and secondary objective. Make it measurable: How will you know when you've reached it?
• Exploration. What do we need to learn on this call, and how will we gain this information? Make a list of both content and process questions.
• Content. What exactly are we offering to them? How will we present?
• Sales call process. Who will open? How will the team advance the conversation? Whose job is it to keep the pace, and to conclude?
• Resources and roles. Who will go or be on the phone? What media will be utilized? What travel, hospitality, etc. will be involved? What strategic and tactical roles will each of the participants play?
Close. How will you close on your objective?
• Follow-up. How will you report on the call to your colleagues? And how are you planning to follow up with the prospect?
In all instances, the CEO's presence should be used strategically to push the prospect closer to a positive buying decision. Consider the previous example in which the CEO did the demo; in reality, sales staff can and should perform this role. A higher-value and more appropriate role for that CEO would have been to sell vision, strategy, ideas and relationship, not specific features and functions.
In addition to being a visible industry leader, the CEO should be a visible participant in the company's sales processes and management. Provided it's utilized intelligently, their involvement will motivate the sales staff and demonstrate to others the importance of the sales function.
Remember, CEOs can drive the sale to a close and strengthen relationships or they can drive the prospect away. But so long as there's an honest understanding of his or her sales skills, along with disciplined planning and focus on the strategic sales role CEOs should play, they can become an invaluable tool in your company's sales efforts.
Sidebar: Raising the Conversation
In many instances, use of the CEO in the average sales process is inappropriate and can even raise a red flag. "In our case, we really can't bring a CEO along," says the sales VP of a systems company. "We sell to a lowerlevel manager, and if we brought the CEO along they would be intimidated, or think something was wrong."
According to one financial services representative, "The
client exec told me that if the CEO had to go on every sales call, we must be poorly run or desperate for business, and that made him nervous. Even a small
company's CEO shouldn't be going on every sales call."
Antidote: Use the CEO strategically at critical junctures. One CEO, whose inflated ego made him unpredictable (and disastrous) in sales situations, turned out to be brilliant in the role of host and industry expert at the podium of sales conferences.
One salesperson at a hardware manufacturer of data centers reported great success using the CEO to help get a meeting with senior decision makers at an existing account. For months, he had been trying to leverage his excellent relationship with the director of IT to try to meet with the customer CTO about a new product his company was introducing, with nothing to show for his efforts.
Every time, the meeting got pushed off or cancelled at the last minute due to another priority. Finally, the salesperson announced to the director that the CEO/founder would accompany him on his next sales call, and requested he set up several "check-in" meetings with the account's senior management. It worked! During the visit, the CEO’s presence established the connection and allowed the salesperson to raise the level of conversation to include potential needs targeted by the new product.
Rick Simpson is an associate partner and J. Mark Carr is a partner at CMG Partners, a strategic sales and marketing consulting firm. For more info, visit www.cmgpartners.com.
Sales & Marketing Management Magazine
This article is brought to you by Sales & Marketing Management, the leading authority for executives in the sales and marketing field.
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